The Emmy Awards: The Ten Most Awesome Things That Happened Last Night

The brass went to the usual suspects, the speeches were mostly rote, and in awards-show tradition, at least one veteran actor-presenter seemed totally schwasted (Julia Roberts!). But still, in the broadcast’s margins, some very funny things happened. Here are ten unexpected, hilarious, or just plain wonderful moments from last night’s 66th Emmy Awards, starting with…

Billy on the Street!

All the Emmys for Billy Eichner, whose few-minute clip reprising his own show’s "For a Dollar" schtick was the single funniest bit of entire broadcast. It was just the right tone—goofy as heck, but with a dark and undermining edge that took it to complete riotousness. Perhaps Seth Meyers’s bravest and best move as host was to greenlight a sketch proving vast swaths of Americans have no idea who he is.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Kissing Bryan Cranston in a Douglas Fairbanks Mustache While Winning an Emmy and Basically Doing a _Seinfeld _Crossover

It happened!

Woody Harrelson’s Plagiarism Bombing

Presenting as a duo, striding out to the True Detective theme, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey were endearing if a little toast-like—as if they were each other’s best man. Your correspondent also had trouble not staring at the Red Suit Blue Suit thing. They looked like two (delicious) flavors of gummy worm. But when Woody made a joke about True Detective’s plagiarism troubles, and nobody laughed, and Matthew basically said "Too soon?!!" to yet more shrugs, it was nothing short of glorious. That these guys can make each other laugh while _bombing, and don’t give a shit whether you get it, _is why they have more fun than anyone else in the room.

Seth Meyers Plus One!

As a host, Seth could be ungainly. There were a lot of jokes about agents and contracts and networks and agents again. "Streaming" was said infinity times too many. It was like someone Thesaurus.commed "television," then made his writers gin up eight dutiful jokes per result. But paired with another person, as a convener, a director, and an organizer, he was pretty matchless—he threw to Eichner and Weird Al Yankovich, comedy people’s comedy people who don’t usually find homes at slick awards shows. And his one-two punching with Amy Poehler and Andy Samberg reminded us how great he is (completely and totally great!) as a foil and drawer-outter of weirdness. Seth Meyers is the loneliest number, everybody! Give that man a buddy.

Weird Al Is Glorious Even Without a Real Microphone

You could only hear every seventh word, but those words were funny ones!

But Jimmy Kimmel Has No Hosting Conscience

So Jimmy Kimmel got some flack for using his presenter turn as a five-minute set. And maybe that’s deserved. But his words—and his immediate and total command of the room—were funny, and to us, the sheer douche-tastic audacity of the hijacking made it even funnier. Hat-tip, again, to the get-out-of-the-way confidence of Seth Meyers, who theoretically OK-ed throwing Kimmel some time.

The silver in this category goes to Ricky Gervais, who used his turn to read his woulda-been acceptance speech for Derek. His riffs are deeply faithful to the same old mode—Gervais as pompous asshole actor—but if you didn’t laugh at all during his speech, you’re a stronger man than us.

Maybe Now You Feel Like There’s a Reason to Watch Sherlock!

The BBC’s addictive sleuth-on-the-spectrum show swept dramatic miniseries performances and writing, though it lost its top prize (it was entered as a TV movie) to Ryan Murphy’s velvet cheetah smoking jacket. It did all this in the quietest way possible—Martin Freeman wasn’t there to accept, Benedict Cumberbatch wasn’t there to accept, and writer-creator Steven Moffat’s speech was a tremulous, unprepared blip in which he fretted over co-creator Mark Gattis not being with him. But here’s the message: television lovers love it. Because it’s goddamn great. So watch it already!

Billy Crystal, Still an American Treasure

Sometimes it seems like this guy’s only job is to bail us out of uncomfortable awards show moments. But when he does it so well, why call anybody else? His tribute to Robin Williams was moving and wonderful and perfect, even if it was immediately desecrated by a bizarre, anemic clips reel. C’mon, guys, does he have to do everything around here?!

_Breaking Bad’_s Delightful Curtain Call

They won the night, they won the year—the AMC show’s Anna Gunn, Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, creator Vince Gilligan, and writer Moira Walley-Beckett all accepted awards, each as humble and thankful as if they’d never won a damn thing in their lives. Given the amount of pre-Emmys ink devoted to this year’s Breaking Bad/True Detective-off, the wins came over as a light knock on True Detective fever. The HBO show’s biggest (and completely deserved) win was for director Cary Joji Fukunaga, whose acceptance was rattled and a little thin: "Sup New York." Sup, Cary! Womankind here—any chance you’d consider losing the braids, you beautiful man?

In Conclusion, Stephen Colbert

Weird! Wonderful! Silly! Still not ready to leave cable, where they can say "bullshit!" But smart enough to put those words in another guy’s mouth!

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